Below is the visualization I came up with for my first infographic resume using visualize.me:

In his article, Jarrod covers three important areas: 1) Don’t ask about the future, 2) Don’t ask the participant how they’d design something, and 3) Don’t provide a reason why when you ask about observed behavior. There are also many additional considerations, such as the way you formulate the scenario, the type of acknowledgement tokens you use, how silent you are etc.

In fact when you really dive into it you could about drive yourself nuts trying to memorize the exact ways to interact with people in an attempt not to influence them. Thankfully, in the end, we are all human, and no matter what we do we will influence each other. So the important thing is not to try and get everything exactly right, but to understand when and why certain questions may make a response less reliable.

I find this especially important when there are observers in a usability session, as I will sometimes ask questions that I know I can’t use the answer to, simply because I know that asking it will build a rapport with the participant that makes them feel more comfortable, and more willing to expose their opinions later in the study. The trick with this, is making sure the stakeholders also know that they can’t rely on the answers.

So why can’t you rely on participants hopes and dreams? Why can’t you ask them what they want, and how they would like to see it work? You can’t ask because of the way the brain works. As humans we have a unique ability to pretend, to make deductions about our experiences, and to hypothesize about the future based on those experiences. This happens in our frontal lobe where we make rational deductions about the irrational ways that we behave. Unfortunately, we also tend to leave many things out when we think about the future. In part because we are being asked to guess how we will feel in a hypothetical state that we have not yet experienced.

“If that button were on the left, would you have seen it?” How do you answer this? You think about what the button would look like on the left, you think about not seeing it on the right, and you deduct, that in fact “Yes, I would have seen it on the left”. Because you can’t imagine that you’d miss it twice, especially now that it’s been pointed out to you. However in reality, there is no way to know if that is true, without actually having the button on the left and seeing if you notice it the first time around. You may not have noticed it because of some huge red text in the center of the screen, or because the button has no affordance in the first place, there are many possible reasons.

It is also our frontal lobe that convinces us we remember exactly what happened on September 11th, when in reality we are most likely remembering some or much of it wrong. Why do you think you can remember any of it at all? Because it was emotional and different, and it stood out, right? Memory is strongly connected to emotion, which is why we feel like we remember it better and we are likely able to pull back more detail about what happened. Yet, our memory works somewhat similar to our ability to predict the future. We consider bits and pieces, and fill in the rest, we modify our memories over time, and usually feel that we remember emotional experiences the best.

We change our memories based on experiences we have had after the event took place. If the first time you used a piece of software, you stumbled with it a bit. Then after subsequent use you found that you really enjoyed it, and I ask you did you have trouble learning the software? You’re likely to respond “Not really, I’ve always really found it quite nice to use”. You’re not lying to me, your simply remembering all of the positive experiences you had, and probably considering that any software takes a moment to learn, and therefore not remembering in as much detail the length of time it took you to get up to speed with it.

The best thing you can do, to get the most reliable results is to focus on now. Remember that any question you ask will have subjectivity to it, and balance that with what you observed. If I ask you how you feel at this moment, your response will be much more reliable, then if I ask you to predict how you might feel at 5pm, or how you felt at 9am yesterday.

 Here is an example of one I have run into (one too many times) lately on my windows 7 machine.

How do you design for these errors? Well, unfortunately most don’t and that’s both the problem and the point. They are unexpected so they aren’t planned for. What should you do? For starters give the user something they can work with, like an error code they can reference, or a customer support number, maybe an apology for not accounting for this error in the first place..

OR

You could give them your personal phone number. This is the suggestion I just came across and I love it:

Give users some hint about what to do next.

“At least try to give users some hint about what to do next.”

Rhonda’s advice includes telling the user what to do about an error. If you believe your can’t-ever-happen error message would appear rarely enough, why not put your direct phone number into it? Does doing that make you feel too uncomfortable? How about your email address? Or maybe the contact details for your help desk?

I realize all of these suggestions might seem ridiculously utopian, but this error message was never supposed to appear, so the traffic it generates shouldn’t be all that bad, should it?

Source: Avoid Being Embarrassed by Your Error Messages by Caroling Jarrett

Should you really put in your personal number? Well, that depends on how confident you are that no one will ever see it. I’ll tell you what, it certianlty makes me think a little harder about whether or not I’ve accounted for everything

One example of this is something I noticed on the latest IKEA catalog. The binder was also a ruler. This is such a little thing, but shows a certain culture about IKEA and conveys a sense of caring about the customer, helping them in little ways with subtle conveniences.

Another great example of this, and one of my personal favorites, is the way that tabs in chrome will respect their current width while the user is closing tabs, so that the close target is always in the same place. It isn’t until the user moves their mouse away from the tab that the width re-sizes to fill the space inappropriately.

Even the Daily Mood flip display on my desk made my life a little easier by providing mood definitions on the back of each page. This isn’t something that anyone really see’s but me, and for the most part it’s not really needed. But it makes a big difference on those occasions when you do come across a mood that is unfamiliar to you.

What qualifies as a “little thing” you might ask? I consider it to be something that your customers may not notice. Something that is most likely not even a business requirement, but instead added purely to ease, delight, and make your customers lives just a little more pleasant.

There are many great examples out there, but rather than posting them all here, I’d rather link you to the website Little Big Details. It is a great collection of “little things” that help inspire me on a regular basis to take into account subtle additions. Things that only a few may even notice, but will make people’s lives, just a little easier.

So why is it then, that I can’t seem to use the microwave pictured below without exploding my oatmeal, boiling my coffee, or charring my microwave meals?

Sure, as you may be able to tell by my reflection, it’s a positioned a bit high. I’m 5’4″ and I would guess this shelf sits at 5′. So that does play a part in my ability to see into the microwave in time to stop the oatmeal from boiling over the cup and all over the turn table.

However, that doesn’t bother me as much as the programming of the buttons.

To illustrate my frustration with the buttons, I will use the edamame I purchased to have with lunch as an example of my frustrations. See the cooking instructions below.

So this needs to cook for 70 seconds. Pretty simple. According to my past microwaving experience I would probably need to do one of two things to operate the microwave for this item:

1. Press “Time Cook” >  Convert 70 seconds to 1 Minute 10 seconds in my head > Press the buttons 1 + 1 + 0 > Press start.

-or-

2.   Convert 70 seconds to 1 Minute 10 seconds in my head > Press the buttons 1 + 1 + 0 > Press start.

What’s the difference, only the Time Cook button. I’m not really sure why they are included in some microwaves, and not in others. I prefer getting straight to the numbers, but I understand that when the button is present, I must press it first.

So looking at the operating panel below, what do you think happens, when I try method #2 above? (there is no “time cook” so I went straight for #2)…

I press the 1 button and immediately the microwave starts, and the time is set to 1:00. Woah! I didn’t expect that. I hit Stop. I tried again, just in case it was a button pressing error, and zoom, it starts right up again at 1:00.  I re-review for the Time Cook button, but it is still not there. My next idea is a similar named button like “Cook”, but it is missing too. Finally, I tried to type in 1+1+0 really fast… but this just gave me 1:00 no response from the extra 1 + 0.

So, how the heck do you enter 1:10 ??

I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. I even asked for help. 3 people, and no one could figure it out. (How many developers does it take to work a microwave? Apparently more then 4.)

So, I did what any hungry person would do, I entered 1, then hit the +30 sec/Start button to get 1:30. Then watched the timer like a hawk until it hit 20 seconds and pressed the open door button.  This works, sometimes… however most people who know me know I like to multi-task, and I’m chatty. So typically, I forget I’m watching the microwave, and you guessed it, my food over cooks.

From what I can tell, the designer was so pre-occupied with making the “express” buttons as express as possible, that the idea of entering a custom time was disregarded. I think if it were up to me, I would add a button titled “Express” and require you to click it then the number to start the express timer. The rest of the time, you could just enter a time, and press start.

What’s the lesson. Know your users, know their context, and know their goals.

Sure, I may not be the primary user of this device. There may be a whole mess of people out there that need exactly 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 minute cooking times the majority of the time. But for me at least 15 seconds (my coffee), 1:15 (my bacon), and 4:45 (frozen dinner) are definitely more popular.

P.S. After non-stop button pushing, I finally discovered you must press Power, then the cooking time, then start to get a custom time. Hitting Power multiple times will decrement the power level down from 10.

What qualifies as a usable document? I consider many criteria. Of course any document has some basic requirements.

For example:

• The user should know what page they are on, and how many pages there are.
• The reader should know the title and subject of the document they are reading.
• Near the beginning of the document, the take-away should be summarized for the reader.
• Sections should be clearly distinguishable from each other, and clearly titled based on their purpose.
• Where possible images should be used instead of trying to describe something that is visual.
• Footnotes and captions should provide supplementary information.
• Etc..

So what takes a bland and dry document to the next level? Engagement, delight, aesthetics, visual priority, chunking, grouping, call-outs and so on. This is where UX documents should transcend to the next level of usefulness. Examples are not easy to find, for a variety of reasons. One being that these well designed documents are rare, and the other that often they are confidential to the company they were created for.

The guys at EightShapes have done an excellent job promoting good documentation and even provide a free template library to get you started. Their co-founder Dan Brown also has a great book on Communicating Design.

I have done some scouring for you and below are a few documents that I felt took MS Word + a theme and some styles to the next level by considering the user experience of the reader.  They are not all perfect, but they are a start… I would love to see any additional examples that you find!

It also reminded me a lot of a great presentation I saw last august at UX Week by Chris Noessel and Nathan Shedroff called Make It So: Learning From SciFi Interfaces.

Below are some websites and apps I rounded up that merge retro design with modern technology:

Websites

Classy Sites & Classy Ads ~ AdPacks.com

FourtySeven Media

Henry Jones

The New York Moon

Pin-Up Girl Espresso

Stolle’s Tricycle Terror

Lather Bee Rich Company

Mobile Apps

Retrollect

Retro Camera – Android Market

 Retro Recorder

Pocketbooth

iRetroPhone

iHandy Carpenter

Online ordering at PF Chang's

I clicked the promo and entered my zip code to locate the nearest store to me. So far, so good. Next I was shown a map with local stores, so I chose the store near me, and clicked the link to “Order Online”. The next page asked me to choose my pickup date and time, which I entered, I then clicked a “Continue” button. I chose my Lettuce Wrap from the menu and added it to my order. Then clicked the “Checkout” button. So far so good right?

The next screen asked me to log into my existing account, or create an account. Why do I need an account to place an order for pickup? I’m sure if I simply called in an order on the phone an account wouldn’t be required, so why is this extra step necessary on the web? Curious, I clicked the button to “Create an Account”. If it’s not to much work, then I’ll just do it.

The next page asked me to enter my email address, and then enter it again for verification. Okay, I can do this (see below).

PF Chang's Email Signup

I entered my email address, then entered it again and clicked submit. To my surprise the submit button gave way to a much longer form (see below).  They not only wanted my email (which I could understand for purposes of verifying my order) but also my home address, phone number, birthday, confirmation that I’m over 21, and my local P.F. Chang’s Bistro (which they should have been able to discern from my address).

All I want to do is pick up my Lettuce Wrap. I’m not ready for a long term commitment to their website and the marketing that will surely be sent to me after disclosing my location. Why all the hassle, they wouldn’t hassle me like this on the phone.

Account Sign Up P F Chang's

At this point, I was annoyed by the form, and decided the leftovers in the fridge would be easier than stopping by the restaurant anyway.

So what’s the take-away? Don’t treat your customers like data, just because they are online. Could you imagine if each time you went to a P.F. Chang’s they stopped you at the door and asked if you had an account or not. Then if not, said you had to give them your information and handed you a form? They wouldn’t do it in person, so they shouldn’t do it online. Forms are a commitment, and a conversation, just as in person there is an appropriate amount of information you can ask from a customer based on your relationship with them and the nature of the sale. You would expect a form at a doctors office, not at a restaurant. Treat your customers online, as you would in person. If you start getting too nosy too early, people will get turned off and “walk away”.

Droid Time Picker

iPhone Scroll Wheel

HTC Time Picker

My original Droid featured a +/- option with the ability to manually enter numbers with the onscreen keyboard. While maybe not as cool looking, I found that it was functionally superior for a number of reasons:

• Accuracy: When moving up or down a couple of numbers, tapping the button the same number of times as you need to adjust the number made sense to me. Now when scrolling, the wheel requires more attention and accuracy as I can’t move my finger too fast, or lifting it will cause the wheel to continue to roll. So I must slide my finger up or down, and not lift it until pausing on the exact number I need.
• Speed: When moving across a larger span of numbers, on the Droid I would simply enter with the keyboard the number I was looking for. On the wheel design I often accidently scroll past the desired number, as there is no hard stop. Instead you must guess your drag speed and lift based on desired momentum and the positioning of the number on a wheel. This ultimately takes me much longer to do, then simply entering the number I am looking for.
• Cognitive Load: Finally, I feel that the cognitive load on the scroll wheel is much higher as you can see not only the chosen number but also the number above, and the number below on each visible wheel at the same time.  With the Droid picker you can quickly discern the exact time as they are the only numbers displayed. The same goes for AM/PM selection. Additionally, when playing with a friends iPhone I noticed that while trying to scroll the far left wheel I would also accidently scroll the middle wheel.